Saw this today with my son - he's 9 nearly 10 and we loved playing the Black Flag game in the series.
First time I've seen a mainstream non kids film in the cinema since 2008 and i enjoyed it. The air con was great as outside it was stinky hot 36 Celsius!

Anyway, i had read a lot about the film, watched how they made parts and it was pretty good. The scenes in the 15th century, with the fighting and park-our were awesome, all done by stunts and wires. More of that would've been good as it does spend most of the film in the present day (I won't go into the plot or anything, you can read up on that anywhere lol).

A persistent part of reviews I read was the toning down of the game's violence and blood letting at the expense of the rating so younger kids could watch it. Here in Oz it is rated M for mature audiences (the same as Rogue One). At first it was kind of weird when the fighting started and there was no gallons of blood flying as is the norm these days - even though I don't watch those shows anyway lol. But you gradually became used to it and, there were quite a few deaths (prolly 100 at a guess) through stabbing etc but with minimal blood or even none. This sort of made sense in a forensic type way I realised later, as with the clothes the Spanish soldiers were wearing, then getting stabbed quickly in amongst all the chaos probably wouldn't lend itself to seeing much blood anyway? Does that make sense?  Just a theory, is all

Anyway it did get a bit confusing near the end of the film and my son was baffled a bit but it was pretty good and I would go see any sequels made. A whole film set in the past would be great.

Forgot to mention that the acting was good and the leads believed in what they were doing.

Sounds to me that if you and your son hadn't played the video game that you would have given this movie 2 thumbs down. Am I wrong?

I never played the game.

I dunno, Tony. I've read quite a few reviews by people who hadn't played the games and loved it purely as an action film. I'm pretty fussy these days with watching movies so for me to make the effort to go see it meant I was keen lol. I watch heaps of trailers for new films and read up on them but never see them. I have seen hardly any of the most popular films of the last 10 years and more before that. I simply can't be bothered to sit and watch. We have Netflix at home but I don't watch any. I'd rather spend hours on the computer playing free online MMORPG's (and Candy Crush lol)

My son saw the trailer for Xander Cage. He wants to see it lol.

I actually walked out the last 15 minutes of the film.

I didn't like what I saw up to that point.

Never played the games but knew about them ever since the first one came out. So, I don't know how faithful it was.

17% on the Tomato meter and a complete and utter Box Office Bomb, with a Production budget of $125 Million, and a pathetic $42 Million NABO return, and another$45 Million overseas.

Stevie, you old goat, you may well be 1 of a few that enjoyed this garbage.

For your 2nd movie at the theater, pick something decent!  

Quoted from Dreamscale 17% on the Tomato meter and a complete and utter Box Office Bomb, with a Production budget of $125 Million, and a pathetic $42 Million NABO return, and another$45 Million overseas. Stevie, you old goat, you may well be 1 of a few that enjoyed this garbage. For your 2nd movie at the theater, pick something decent!

Lol yeah well shit happens mate. It was ok. The stuntwork and the detail in the scenes in old Spain were excellent, just wasn't enough time spent there.

I just like saying the name Fassbender.

I feel like it bombed because of the lack of promotion. If they put even a fraction of an effort into the promos for this movie as they did the actual movie it may have done better.

I seriously hadn't heard anything about it until like a week ago.  So who knows I might watch it on FX three years from now.

The previews just did nothing for me. No plans on seeing this one, especially now that the reviews are coming out.